2026 Oscar Reviews: 'If I Had Legs I’d Kick You'
March 10, 2026
Many people have told me that Mary Bronstein’s comedy-drama “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” stressed them out so much that they couldn’t finish watching it. This did not strike me as a criticism, but rather a recognition that that’s the point.
From the beginning of the film, we are tugged into the world of a mother on the brink of a breakdown as she struggles to care for her very ill school-aged daughter and carry on her job as a psychotherapist. With the camera’s unrelenting focus on the mother Linda, played by the breathtaking Rose Byrne, frequently in close-up, this world feels exceedingly claustrophobic. We never actually see the daughter until the very last scene; she exists solely as an irksome voice that demands constant attention. The father and husband, too, apparently away on business, only resonate in distant, patronizing drones on the 
other end of Linda’s cellphone. This film is unyieldingly from the perspective of the mother and her emotional turmoil. We cannot help but feel the weight of her exhaustion, anger, and even regret.
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” follows a slew of other recent films that unapologetically explore the struggles of motherhood, such as “The Babadook,” “Tully,” “A Thousand and One,” and “Nightbitch.” Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, Bronstein’s film takes the challenges of mothering to new extremes. With reference to another Oscar nominee, this film could also wield the title “One Battle After Another.”
– Olivia Landry, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, College of Humanities and Sciences, and author of the book, “Cinema of Crushing Motherhood”